Tairāwhiti has NZ's highest participation rate in ShakeOut exercise - again

More than 80 Gisborne District Council staff grabbed what they needed and walked from Fitzherbert Street to Waiteata Park — the evacuation spot for GDC staff after a long or strong earthquake. Tairāwhiti had New Zealand’s highest participation rate percentage-wise in the ShakeOut evacuation exercise for the third year in a row. Picture supplied

Twenty-four percent of Tairāwhiti people signed up for ShakeOut 2023 — the highest participation rate in the country for the third year running.

ShakeOut is New Zealand’s annual earthquake and tsunami drill where people practise their evacuation plans.

Gisborne-Tairāwhiti topped the scoreboard with 12,415 individuals, 70 businesses, 63 schools, and 269 households signed up.

The second region was the West Coast at

22 percent, followed by Southland in third with 17 percent.

Tairāwhiti Emergency Management manager Ben Green said it was comforting to see so many people had heeded the message that we need to practise our evacuation as a region.

“We have a 26 percent chance of a significant event in the Hikurangi Fault occurring within the next 50 years. People are at the heart of everything we do. We want our region as prepared as possible so we thank you all for taking part,” Mr Green said.

The Hikurangi Subduction Zone remains the region’s biggest threat with the potential to deliver a devastating megathrust earthquake and subsequent tsunami.